DVD Review: My Dear Killer (1972)
It's all too easy to write off Shameless DVD releases as 90 minutes of blood, guts and general old school video nastiness. But those blood-filled sleeves can be deceptive, with some really cool vintage flicks getting a first release by the fledgling label - including My Dear KIller.
A 1972 movie, directed by Tonino Valerii (one of Sergio Leone's assistant on the 'Dollars' movies amongst other career highlights) and set in Rome, this is well above average giallo with the occasional nasty shock and an interesting script, not to mention the ubiquitous black-gloved killer. It's just a shame the ending's so cheesy really.
It's also got one of the strangest starts to a movie you'll ever encounter, as a private detective loses his head, courtesy of a digger driver hired to dredge a pond. Bad luck? Well, no - it kicks off a sequence of events that leads back to the kidnap and killing of a child from the affluent Moroni family some years before.
On the case is Inspector Luca Paretti (George Hilton), who works his way back through the witnesses to that crime - but each witness he encounters almost immediately gets bumped off by the gloved killer. Paretti has to find the child's killer and the crucial evidence before he/she silences all the witnesses - and everything points to a member of Moroni family or one of their servants. None of whom you'd trust with your wallet, let alone a child's life.
At times, things are tough on the old grey matter, with the plot taking a few detours and new suspects coming along every five minutes. But using a mixture of luck and logic, it all comes together in the end - although whether you'll recognise the killer at the end might depend on whether you've been taking notes.
It's still a stylish horror/thriller though - with some memorable set-piece killings (including a rather nasty power tool carve up), a cool Ennio Morricone score (is there any other type?) and some impressive performances and cinematography. As I said at the start of the review, this is above average giallo that's certain to appeal to fans of the genre or indeed fans of 70s Euro cinema. Another fine release from Shameless, which is rapidly becoming the most interesting film label around.
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